


A Sudden Realization

by AndiMackmeetsHeathers



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24683497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndiMackmeetsHeathers/pseuds/AndiMackmeetsHeathers
Summary: Kira spots TJ and Cyrus hanging out with each other after school and puts two and two together. Will they spot her before it's too late to correct things? Will she use their relationship against them?Inching forward ever so slightly (so as to not disturb them or interrupt their conversation), Kira leaned in to hear what they were discussing and saw who the other figure was. Unless her eyes were decieving her, Summers was in for some bad news.It was Cyrus Goodman.His heated gaze turned to Kira. "You know what?""What?""We are together.""TJ, what are you doing?!""The right thing."
Relationships: Cyrus Goodman/T. J. Kippen
Comments: 4
Kudos: 78





	A Sudden Realization

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warning-Cyrus experiences a very brief, very minor panic attack. There is also homophobia from Kira, but no homophobic slurs. It's more subtle, and mostly thought. 
> 
> Just a random idea I got, I know it drags on a bit but I hope you like it. Ignore the timeline. If you did like it, please comment below displaying your thoughts on this. Enjoy the fic!

Kira hadn't quite meant to see it, on that snowy day following the last basketball practice of the year. Not the academic year, as in, but the literal one. 2019 was drawing to a close, and with it would arrive 2020. Who knew what would be in store that year ahead? They would have to wait and see.

Anyway, she'd just been minding her own business as she strolled aimlessly down the corridors, definitely not thinking about talking to TJ or anything like that. Nope. Not at all. Why would she be doing that? Considering the way she blew him off at the party last weekend, she'd be surprised if he even so much as acknowledged her when passing by. 

All the same, she had to hope that he would be willing to talk to her. He was fun, and a very talented basketball player. Whenever a dull moment lingered around, like a bad smell in the air, it would disappear straight away-if TJ Kippen had anything to do with it, by any means. 

They'd hung out a lot, recently: at school, at the park, at the cinema and even at the mall, shopping for new trainers and sport gear. Suffice to say, he had never failed to make her laugh with some form of sarcastic quip or other, and his skills were impressive. Not to mention, he was way more intelligent than most people had given the boy credit for; once they found out that he was athletic, they disregarded his academic achievements and general intellectual abilities in an instant. How stupid of them. 

Yes, she knew it was weird to follow him around. He was a free man and he did what he wanted (within reason). Of course, she was fully aware of this. Still, when Kira Summers was determined to get something, it meant that, more often than not, she would. She was used to getting her way, so TJ's initial rejection with the line 'nah, I'm set' and Buffy kicking her off the Girls' Basketball Team for 'not being a team player' (whatever that meant) had come as a shock and, to some extent, a rebellion to Kira. She got her way wherever she went, most of the time. What was different this time around? 

When it came to the basketball captain, there was one rather significant difference between him and the vast majority of those around him, one in which Kira had picked up on immediately. To be honest, it was his fault for not being subtle enough in the park. And for not paying enough attention to her that day. What in the world could be more important than her, after all? 

She already knew the answer to that. Cyrus Goodman, Kira thought to herself bitterly. When it came down to it, TJ had picked Cyrus over Kira. So what if Cyrus never made him pick? Good for him. Did that earn him a medal now? For not being like Kira? For not caring enough to fight for someone who he cared about a lot? Wow. Amazing job, Cyrus Goodman. 

Come to think of it, she never had liked him. The way he looked at you, it was as though he was psycho-analyzing you, trying to figure you out with one look and one look alone. It made him very judgmental. Then again, she wasn't surprised: his parents were Shrinks. This wisdom had been imparted upon her by none other than the guy she was ninety percent certain Cyrus was crushing on. That was right-TJ. 

In fact, he never stopped talking about Cyrus, or so it seemed. It grew infuriating after a while, you had to admit it. Hearing somebody talk about their crush for so long-and it was a crush, she had a pair of eyes, so she could tell-it became boring. Maybe because that crush wasn't, and never could be, her. She'd tried to make him straight, but it obviously hadn't worked. She couldn't believe her plan had backfired; despite TJ's strong willed nature, she had at least expected him to show some sort of interest in her, but alas, to no avail. 

The problem was, however, that Kira never really had proper feelings for him in the first place. Or had she? Everything was so confusing, she had no way of ascertaining whether she did or not. All that she knew as a certainty was that she had made it her mission to save him from himself by setting him on the straight and narrow. 

Straight. Ha. That hadn't quite worked with TJ, had it? Okay, so Kira had to admit that she didn't know what was going on between TJ and Cyrus, but she has really hoped it was nothing. Again, she found herself wondering whether or not she'd had any romantic feelings towards the boy in question, but she brushed it aside. She didn't think so, not deep down. No, she likes messing with people's heads and playing around with them, manipulating them until she got what she wanted. Without fail, it had worked time after time in the past.

Until now. 

As she strolled as casually as she could down the corridor, pretending to fire off a text message on her phone, Kira spotted two distant figures at the end of the corridor. At this, she scowled in confusion-all the basketball players were in the locker rooms at the moment, not out here-she had been planning on staying here for the next ten minutes, at which point he'd arrive and they could talk things over. 

But apparently not. From where she was standing, it appeared like he was in deep conversation with someone else. A particular someone else who he was currently standing very close to, the manipulative girl noted. Suspicious indeed. 

Inching forward ever so slightly (so as to not disturb them or interrupt their conversation), Kira leaned in to hear what they were discussing and saw who the other figure was. Unless her eyes were deceiving her, Summers was in for some bad news.

It was Cyrus Goodman. 

Oh no. This certainly did not bode well for her, or her master plan to get with TJ, thereby upsetting Buffy Goddamn Driscoll and all of those around her. But-they were being nothing but friendly, right? 

Right? 

Moving forward further, in complete and utter silence, she attempted to eavesdrop into their conversation without being noticed, wishing she could be invisible right now. Where was an Invisibility Cloak when you needed it? 

Nonetheless, she managed to get away with point closer to the pair of boys without either of them suspecting a thing. Wow, they were that engrossed in each other. This was exactly what she needed. 

Shutting her eyes to help her focus on the noise , Kira noticed that she could finally make out snippets of their conversation.

"We've got to be careful in public. You never know who could find out, Cyrus. I might be jeopardizing my role as Captain of the Basketball Team. Do you know how serious that is to me?" 

"Let me guess. Very?" 

"Ding ding ding. You've won the jackpot. Bingo. Whatever you want to say." Kira smirked behind her hand at his wit. Out of nowhere, TJ sighed and ruffled his hair in a distressed manner. "I don't want to lose my position on the team. Not all of the members on there are naturally as....understanding as your friends, shall we say, of gay people. I doubt that most of them would be supportive of me." 

Cyrus frowned, a wave of sadness washing over him at the prospect of his boyfriend being forced into the closet. He didn't deserve to be treated like this. 

"I'm sorry, Teej. I had no idea that they were still like that-I thought that the whole homophobic athlete thing was just , well, a stereotype.

At this, he shrugged. "Apparently not. They're assholes, some of them, so I shouldn't care. But I do, damn it. I do." 

"Could you report them to the Coach?" 

"Nah, I'm pretty sure he thinks in the same messed up way that they do. Do you ever wish that you were born straight?" 

"All the time," Cyrus responded with a small smile. "But you're on the right track, you were born this way." 

TJ chuckled. "Singing that song together felt very empowering. Fun, too, obviously. But it made me realize that I couldn't hide my true self from you, you know?" 

Cyrus nodded. "I understand that, yeah. You're suffering right now, but you're not alone, TJ. Never alone." 

They hugged each other for a few more seconds than friends usually would. "Like in the Michael Jackson song?" 

"Like in the Michael Jackson song," Cyrus confirmed with a giggle.

"I don't deserve someone as amazing as you." 

"What? You deserve happiness and love. Besides, I'd hardly consider myself 'amazing', per se." 

Kira rolled her eyes. Typical Goodman, pretending to be modest and giving it all that. Christ. It was pathetic to bear witness to. 

"You're amazing to me, okay? I know you're more confident than ever, but you still need to learn to love yourself the way that other people love you. Alright?" 

"Alright. I guess I could try." 

"That's what I like to hear. So, on a more serious note, you do get why I want us to keep our relationship on the down low for the time being, don't you?" 

Cyrus sighed. "Yeah, I do. Buffy knows, but Andi, Jonah, Amber, Libby and Walker don't. Not yet, that is." 

"Well, Buffy is a mutual friend, so that's cool. I trust her." 

"I've been trusting her all my life, practically. She'll keep this a secret, I promise." 

"Not like Andi, with her big mouth." 

Cyrus nudged TJ, in a playful way. "Hey!" 

"What? You know she is terrible at keeping secrets. In fact, I thought you of all people would know that better than anyone else!" 

The dark haired boy laughed. "Ha. Yeah, I know. Just don't tell Andi that." 

"Chill, I won't." 

"Okay, cool." He squeezed TJ's hand, and that's when Kira came to the sudden realization that they were, without a doubt, together. A couple. In a relationship with each other. "You know how much I care about you, don't you?" 

"Of course I do." He entwined their fingers and smiled at his boyfriend. 

His boyfriend, Kira thought to herself. Ew. That didn't go together; it wasn't normal, it wasn't natural. 

She must have let out some disgusted noise or other, because the next thing she knew they both detached from each other pretty fast and looked up to see what was causing a disturbance. 

"Hello?" The athlete ventured. "Who's there?" 

Kira swore under her breath. Brilliant. She was done for now.

"Oh, um, hi guys! How are you doing? I was just passing by, as you do. You know what? I think I'll just leave th-" 

"Oh, no you don't," TJ exclaimed, while grabbing her wrist. As expected, his grip on her was strong. "What the actual hell do you think you're doing here? Following us? Spying on us?" 

"No, I wanted to talk to you," Kira tried to explain, but the boy wasn't having any of it.

"Cut the crap. As if. You were watching us, weren't you?" 

Kira swallowed. "I didn't mean to. All I wanted to do was talk to you, but then I saw you with him and I waited for you." 

"What did you want to discuss?" 

"The party." 

"There's nothing to discuss. You're the one who stormed off, Kira. Not me." 

"I'm aware of that. But, the whole decision thing was still playing out in mind, and I thought...well, it's stupid. Never mind. After all, it is redundant now." 

"What do you mean?" 

"You two," Kira said, gesturing between the couple with a look of mild disgust on her face. "You're together, aren't you?" 

Cyrus, who had been frozen on the spot, was the one to step forward and speak as TJ paled and looked a little nauseated. 

"What have you heard of our conversation?" 

"More than enough."

Still a little shaken, Cyrus' boyfriend moved over to where Kira was.

Cyrus grabbed his arm. "Teej, she's not worth i-" 

Rougher than he intended to, TJ pushed Cyrus away. "I've got this." His heated gaze turned to Kira. "You know what?" 

"What?" 

"We are together." 

Cyrus gasped. Has TJ really just admitted that? What if the basketball team found out? Not to mention, gay kids were often bullied for their sexuality, and he dreaded the thought of it happening to him or the boy he had become enamored with. Images of him getting slammed against lockers, or his boyfriend having homophobic slurs decorating his belongings, made him sick with fear.

"TJ, what are you doing?!" He was frantic at this point, as it could spell not only bad news but genuine danger for the both of them. More so for him, who could barely defend himself. But still.

"The right thing." Kira laughed at that and was subsequently glared at by the guy stood next to her. Cyrus, on the other hand, wasn't coping with this all so well. 

The world was spinning constantly, he recalled, as it tilted on its axis, and at this present time it was very much reminding him of this fact. Knowing Kira, she could easily manipulate them into breaking up, or threatening to out them or anything (he knew about her ways and all that had happened, thanks to being filled in on the bench). 

A hand appeared in front of his face, but it barely registered-to him, it was nothing but a blur. 

"Cyrus? Are you alright? CYRUS?" Sound travelled like the way it did underwater, and he was struggling to understand. His heart was racing, almost as fast as the thoughts whirring around his head.

"Spinning, it's all spinning...."

"Kira, have you got any water on you?" 

"Yeah, but-"

"Pass it here then. It's the least that you can do after everything that you have put me through," he pointed out.

Sighing, she relented and passed him her bottle of water. 

"Drink this, it'll help. Cy, you're alright, you're safe. I promise." 

"She knows, you confirmed it, she's going to use it against us, isn't she?" 

" Hey, no, she won't, she won't. I'm not going to let her do that to either of us. Breathe. In, out. In and out. Copy me. No, that's not right, you're breathing too fast. That's it, you've got it now." Meanwhile, Kira dithered helplessly, not sure what to do or how to react.

She was indignant that they were talking about her as though she wasn't there, though. She thought they had more manners than that between them. Seriously. Rude much?

Then again, TJ probably was trying to calm Cyrus down, she supposed. Of course she didn't like Cyrus, but she didn't enjoy seeing him suffer-she wasn't a psychopath or a sociopath or whatever. In fact, she'd experienced a panic attack once before and she wouldn't wish it on her worst enemy. 

"Come on, breathe, slower than that. Copy me, Underdog. No, not like that. You're doing it wrong, hey, it's okay, she's not going to-no, it's fine, you'll be fine, I'll be fine. I swear, we'll be fine. Okay, that's good. Slower, slower. Watch this. That's it, that's rigut-perfect. In, out. In, out. There we go, you've got it. Do you need some more water? You do? Here it is, just sip it, bear in mind, you shouldn't be gulping it down. There, see. You've done it. I'm so sorry, Cyrus. Please tell me that I haven't caused this, she alread knew."

Kira nodded along. "I can confirm this. His actions were justified-I saw the pair of you hold hands." TJ shot her a death glare, the kind anyone would find intimidating.

"Not helping, Kira," a muttered response arrived, shocking her into silence. 

"What did we ever do to you?" Cyrus asked Kira, teary eyed and on the verge of sobbing. 

"Like you told me, she's not worth it, Cy." Now that Cyrus' breathing had calmed down somewhat, his boyfriend was hugging him, stroking his hair in a reassuring manner and whispered gentle assurances in his ear. For a brief moment, she longed for a similar form of intimacy-the gentle, soft intimacy found in relationships with emotional vulnerability. She flirted, and boys flirted back ( up until she met TJ, anyway), but it was all shallow, based on physical appearances. No close bonds were ever formed with those guys Kira found herself with. Seeing it in front of her, she thought that maybe, she'd been missing out.

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault I ruin everything-" TJ cut him off by firmly grabbing his shoulders and telling him that he didn't ruin anything, that it was his fault for flat out admitting that they were together before conferring him with. To Kira, it was vomit inducing. She rolled her eyes. 

"Hey, so am I going to hang around here for all of eternity waiting to talking to you, or....?" 

"Thanks as ever for remind us of your presence, Kira. As I was telling you earlier-" he glanced hastily at Goodman, who nodded his approval-"we're together. An item. A couple. Whatever you want to call it, that's what we are, and do you know what?"

"What?" He'd approached her, with the other boy hot on his heels. 

"There's nothing you can do about it. Unless you want me to expose to the whole school how you manipulated me into pretending that I was heterosexual and minimizing my contact with Cyrus, to ensure that he didn't get the 'wrong' idea that I had feelings for him." TJ used air quotes over the word wrong. Kira raised her eyebrows. Whatever she had been expecting him to say, it wasn't this. 

"I could always reveal your big, dirty secret:"-she splayed her hands out-"TJ Kippen is a-" Flushing, TJ managed to stop her there.

"But you won't, because I'll tell them how you manipulated me and made me feel weird for choosing Cyrus over you-a boy over a girl. I've had it up to here with you," TJ continued, putting his arm level with the top of his head. 

"You-you can't!" At this, TJ crossed his arms and Cyrus smirked, drained but with enough energy to confront this girl once and for all. 

"I think you'll find that he can, actually. And he could even go as far as reporting you to Principal Metcalfe for hate speech, as well as bullying-blackmail counts as bullying, in case you weren't already aware of that. Leave us alone. We haven't done anything wrong by being ourselves." Kira's lip curled into a cruel sneer.

"I beg to differ," she said. 

"Well, then you can go off and 'beg to differ' somewhere else, can't you? We've had enough of you by now. We're not the pawns in your little chess game. I'm a real human being with emotions and feelings and thoughts, and you hurt me. A lot. Whether you intended to do so or not, I think it's safe to assume that you've hurt Cyrus in the process, too. That's where I draw the line. Leave us alone. Don't ever talk to me or my boyfriend again, or you'll get reported to Metcalfe and exposed for the manipulative person you are." 

Almost like in the movies, Kira was rendered speechless by TJ's words. For once, he'd stood up for himself. Why, he'd stood up to her. The audacity of it all shook her. He had threatened to get her in trouble, when he was clearly the immoral one in those situation. Still, getting into trouble with Metcalfe and being perceived as a manipulative person would not bode well for her reputation. Screw it.

You've won this time, Kippen, she thought to herself, in shock right now. I won the battle, and you won the war. Screw you. 

"Whatever," Kira laughed as an attempt at feigning nonchalance. "Have a good life."

"Huh. I will, thanks," TJ replied, smiling and wrapping his arm around Cyrus' shoulder. 

"And so will I," Cyrus added with his own wry smile as he glanced up at his boyfriend. The affection in their eyes was strong, and the love that would grow between them was stronger than any obstacle they would be up against and overcome in the end. 

"Come on, Underdog. Let's go," TJ muttered to Cyrus as they walked off. What was with that nickname? It confused her to no end. It was probably an 'inside joke', like the whole Somersault thing. Wow. 

"Have a good life, Kira Summers," TJ called back behind him cheerfully. "I hope I never see you again! Au revoir!" Cyrus waved as TJ sent her off with the middle finger. Classy.

With that being said, they were both gone, leaving her rooted on the spot in surprise. Seconds later, a group of basketball players emerged and crowded the hallway, the one that had been so empty before now full of people. Kira couldn't believe what had transpired. Some may say she was put in her place, but she wasn't sure that she agreed with the notion. However, she did feel powerless, for once in her life. 

TJ had chosen Cyrus over Kira, and not only that, he'd had a go at her and called her out for her erroneous words and actions. Great. That's exactly what she'd needed today. Well, it looked like she was never seeing TJ Kippen or Cyrus Goodman again, or talking to them, at least. 

Needless to say, she wouldn't be messing with anyone else again any time soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for taking the time to read this! Remember to look after yourselves and stay safe during these scary times, and remember that self care is important even with everything that's going on in the world right now.
> 
> Thank you as ever for your love and support, have a great day and don't forget to leave kudos and a comment below if you enjoyed my fic! :)
> 
> Love you all,  
> L x


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